Pilgrimage defines the cathedral

Pilgrimage to the cathedral-church at Lichfield began early in its existence, c. 669 attracted by the work of Chad. More pilgrims arrived when people learned about the miracle of a man with mental illness, freneticus, who lay down by Chad’s grave set up in 672, fell asleep and in the morning was cured, sanato sensu.[i]  Many learned of the miracle from Bede’s book published in 731.

Bede’s, Historia Ecclesiastica Book 4 Chapter 3. “For example, quite recently a madman, who had been wandering from one place to another, came there one evening, unknown to or un-regarded by the guardians of the church, and spent the whole night there. The next morning, he came out in his right mind and, to the amazement and joy of all.” [2]                                                             

 

Ceadda’s grave. Taken from Caspar David Friedrich’s ‘Boy sleeping on a grave,’ dated c. 1801–03.  

 

Bede described ‘those who visit out of devotion’ who were able to insert their hands through an aperture in ‘the little wooden house’ over the grave and obtain soil or sand, pulveris, from the grave to take away. They mixed the pulveris with water and either drank the infusion if they were ailing, or gave it to their unwell cattle. This shows pilgrimage started soon after Chad’s burial. Faith led them to know being close to a saint caused many kinds of miracles.  

Bishop Michael Ipgrave venerating the reliquary cross that held one of Chad’s relics at St Chad’s Catholic Cathedral, Birmingham. A cathedral canon opined, up to the Reformation St Chad was a saint for all people and was now uniting people again.

 

If Bishop Headda of Lichfield under the guidance of Bishop Wilfrid of the Middle Angles laid out the site as a ‘sacred landscape’ early in the 8th-century, then pilgrimage was enhanced.[3] Visitors would be reminded they were at a site like Jerusalem with buildings arranged along a particular path. They would visit first the main church, St Peters, with St Chad’s gospels on the altar (thought to be around 720–740), then a middle area with a cross and perhaps a holy well and finally a shrine tower containing Chad’s grave. The cemetery church of St Mary was close-by. In Jerusalem the pilgrim would move from the basilica church built by Constantine, to Calvary and the cross and finally to the Holy Sepulchre. The chapel for St Mary was close-by. Pilgrimage was a journey and travelling across a sacred landscape facilitated the numinous experience.

 

Speculation on the monasterium at Lichfield as a Sacred Landscape

Early Mercian kings linked with Lichfield were prone to go on journeys like pilgrimages. King Æthelred, reigning 675–704, abdicated to become a monk at Bardney, West Lindsey, Lincolnshire. King Coenred, reigning 704–9, became a monk, travelled to Rome and stayed there until his death in 716. King Æthelbald, reigning 716–757, visited and stayed with Guthlac a hermit living in a simple barrow at Crowland in the East Anglian Fens. Guthlac was a Mercian (royal?) nobleman, warrior and a convert to monasticism. Æthelbald had dreams or visions in which Guthlac spoke to him. 

Roundel from The Guthlac Roll showing King Æthelstan kneeling at Guthlac’s tomb with his ghost looking on. Two accomplices are asleep.

Offa, reigning 757–796, could have built the second cathedral and would have valued the site and Chad. He might have arranged a new shrine chest over the grave with the left end showing the ‘Lichfield Angel’.[4] The elaborate detail must have been added to impress pilgrims. Offa funded the Schola Saxonum in Rome which later became a hostelry for English pilgrims.  

King Edgar the Peaceful, reigning 959–975, encouraged the collection of relics and might have spurred the building of a reliquary chapel to house them in readiness for the possible end-time of the millennium. The return of the St Chad’s gospels and obtaining the relics of Cedd, Chad’s older brother, might be part of this story.[5]

 Norman conquest saw Lanfranc, an Italian lawyer given the high post of archbishop by William I, and he forced the removal of relics from many places of worship seeing them as superstitious. The downgraded cathedral at Lichfield appeared to avoid this iconoclasm with the five canons maintaining some sort of shrine to Chad and having the church in the Domesday Book known as St Chad.

 It is thought a chapel built to securely house Chad’s relics was added on the south side of the choir, c. 1230, in the construction of the current cathedral.[6] Pilgrims now arrived at the south transept door[7] and were escorted to the chapel where they could get close to Chad’s skull and right arm bone reliquary. How the upper chapel was accessed is unknown because the current stairs are thought to have been added later.[8] Rodwell thought there might have been a holy well in the corner of the lower chapel. There is an unverified and unlikely story of a priest holding Chad’s skull, now lined in gold, over the balcony to show pilgrims in the aisle below. The skull was kept in a painted wooden box and it is a short step for someone to hold it up to pilgrims in the chapel and then hold it up over the balcony. The holy relics were used in processions, especially on St Chad’s Day, 2 March. New bishops would have had to acknowledge their saint in some way.

 

Re-enactment of a member of the cathedral holding a skull over the balcony of the St Chad’s Head Chapel. 

 There are town records of a ferry carrying pilgrims and visitors across the middle of Minster Pool from Wroo Lane (later Cock Lane) which ran parallel with Bird Street and behind the George Inn.^[14] A path from Sadler Street to Minster Pool ferry and a path on the opposite bank to the cathedral was said to be shown on John Snape’s map of 1781.^[15] John Leland, 1744 described the Close, its old walls and gates, but he made no mention of a ‘pilgrim’s gate’. The ferry operated before the stone causeway joined Bacon, later Bird, Street with Beacon Street built by Bishop Langton around 1310. The ferry continued for some time after the causeway. A ferry at this point would fit the notion of pilgrims arriving at the south transept door. Having disembarked on the north side of the pool, the pilgrims would have had to walk through a doorway in the Old Cantarist’s College (the chantry priest’s  college) to a guesthouse^[16] (on the site of the college hall) where they would presumably be welcomed. On entering the south transept they would see a compendium of the history of the cathedral on wall boards.

Pilgrim's pathway, shown in red, from John Snape's map, 1781, and also by H. Thorpe, ‘Lichfield: A study of its growth and function,’ Historical Collections of Staffordshire, Third Series, 1950‑51. 1954, 137‑211. 

    

Old Cantarist’s College with the Pilgrim’s Path through the doorway.

The Sacrists Roll, [9]  1345 or 6,[10] listed ten coffers each containing the relics of saints. The bones of St Laurence, St William, St Helen, St James, St Barbara, St Blaze, St Symeon and St Stephen, the dust of St Amphibalus, a relic of St Wulfad (a legendary 7th-century Christian martyr from the royal family of Mercia), part of the hair shirt of St Cuthbert and much more were recorded. Some of the artefacts, there were over 300 listed, were worn, or touched by saints. The large archive of venerated objects shows widespread interest and need. Many could have been the centrepiece of around 14 chapels set around the cathedral in the 13th and 14th-centuries.

Ampullae. Thanks to Ken Hewitt. The lead containers, purchased outside of a cathedral, would contain supposed blessed water and be used to drink, be given to valued farm animals or sprinkled over a crop hoping for a good harvest. Many have been found on fields.

 

            Langton’s sumptuous shrine,[11] c. 1307–8, placed in the retrochoir and eventually facing his Lady Chapel,[12] built  c. 1315–1336, must have sealed Chad as a major British Saint. Lepine thought it changed Chad from being essentially a local, diocesan saint to one observed across the whole province of Canterbury.[13] The shrine must have been as splendid as that at Canterbury for Thomas Becket and some believe both shrines were similar in construction.

         Pilgrims arriving at Lichfield by road had to pass through a town gate with each gate displaying a cross. At the Culstubbe Street gate (St John’s Street) stood two crosses known as Bishop Durdent and Bishop Pucelle. 

Location of gates (red) in c.1350 according to H. Thorpe, Historical Collections of Staffordshire, 1950-51, (1954).

 Anyone, arriving at the gate after it was shut for the day, from the year 1135, could stay at St John the Baptist without the Barrs, a priory providing hospitality for men. Otherwise, they would stay at one of the many hostelries in the town. In 2015, part of the grounds of the priory was being redeveloped and archaeologists found a cemetery with around fifty burials. Many pilgrims came to Lichfield to be healed, so it is possible some of these burials were those who died on their journey.

 

St Johns Priory from H. Snowden Ward, 1892.[17]

 

In 2003, excavation of the nave ‘rising platform’ revealed 22 burials. One was an aged man, a little twisted, with a leather belt and bag. He was crudely buried by being laid on top of a board, possibly a coffin lid. He was thought to have been a pilgrim. The depth of burial suggested 15th century. The burial was on top of Chad’s grave, now filled in and having tiles placed across. On his pelvis and legs was a tree branch around 3cm thick thought to have been his staff. By his right side of his thigh was the remains of a large round bag. 

Langton’s shrine was desecrated in 1538[18] by Reformation Commissioners who came to stop pilgrimage and confiscate valuables accrued from the practice. A canon in the cathedral secreted away (some?) Chad’s relics.[19] So how popular was pilgrimage up to this change of response to relics, saints and pilgrimage? No records were kept of numbers of pilgrims and penitents, no accounts have survived showing the income from pilgrimage and the number of Masses said and prayers given is unknown. Even the number of wills left to the cathedral is unrecorded. In 1536, the royal commissioners calculated pilgrimage to Lichfield was worth £400 each year,[20] This amount is far higher than recorded for other pilgrimage centres and is possibly inflated. From this Lepine thought the late medieval cult was remarkably vigorous and retained significant popularity in the diocese right up to the Reformation.[21] He cited the support given by Bishops Langton, Stretton and Heyworth. 

    There is some evidence for residents of the diocese had to provide an annual donation of money to fund the cathedral, known as a mass membership fraternity. In 1322 it was described as an ancient custom. The giving was called Chad farthings and several medieval bishops ruled it was necessary for the spiritual health of the people. The mass membership could have numbered tens of thousands and there were collectors to ensure the alms were paid. At the same time members were required to visit the cathedral and venerate the relics annually. This suggests pilgrimage within the diocese was important and frequent.

 

Farewell to Lichfield pathway, originally Cross-of-the-Hand, then Cross and Hand and now Cross in Hand Lane. The name is thought to come from pilgrims, carrying a cross in their hand, wanting sanctuary at the Benedictine priory. It may have come from where a procession started on 8 September taking a perambulation of the city boundary for 16 miles. Another explanation is parishioners from Longdon raised a cross when they saw the cathedral on their procession to Lichfield. An ancient cross stood at the city boundary. 

 

            What happened to pilgrimage between Reformation and the Civil War, 1538–1643 is unclear. All relics were lost, no building took place in Elizabeth’s reign, there was a national shortage of clergy, conflicts arose over the book to be used in worship, the cathedral was poor and heretics were burned in the market square.[22] Violent factionalism wracked the church. Any pilgrimage must have been minimal and secretive or non-existent. After the Civil War the interior of the cathedral was in a poor state and Lonsdale[23] recorded that up to the 1850’s Victorian restoration the nave, transepts and choir aisles were limewashed, shabby and comparatively unused.[24] Restoration continued until the start of the 20th-century so the number of visitors must have been small. Today visitors are welcomed as pilgrims, penitents and refugees and arrive from all parts of the world and it is now a significant part of the work of the cathedral.

 

            If pilgrimage is measured by the number of people visiting the cathedral, then because it started early, appears to be continuous until the Reformation and then picks up again in the 20th-century, Lichfield has been a major pilgrimage centre.[25] Today there are pilgrim pathways to the cathedral from Lindisfarne (475 miles, called The Two Kingdoms Way), Chester cathedral (92 miles, called The Two Saints Way), from Tatenhill, St Michael’s Church (14 miles, called The Pilgrim Way Church Trail), from St Chad’s cathedral, Birmingham (18 miles, called St Chad’s pilgrimage) from Shrewsbury (Chad to Chad Pilgrimage) from Repton and from Stafford. Bishop Michael Ipgrave has promoted and participated in these pilgrimages.

Postscript

Lichfield cathedral has been through dark times which have risked its existence; Viking desecration, Norman marginalisation, Reformation iconoclasm, three sieges in the Civil War and Bishop indifference. Like all cathedrals there was a distinct possibility of joining Coventry, Pershore, Chertsey, Bury St Edmunds, Hailes and the many monasteries and ending up as a ruin. Lichfield was a diminished cathedral for two centuries after the Civil War before being largely rebuilt by the Victorians. How did it survive? One good reason was its St Chad cult with its relics and pilgrimage. Veneration and pilgrimage defined the cathedral and sustained its significance and worth. When describing the cathedral this aspect must be prominent.

[1] See the post ‘Miracles justified and sanctified the early church’

[2] J. McClure and R. Collins, ‘Bede. The Ecclesiastical History of the English People’, (Oxford: 2008), 178.

[3] See the post ‘Sacred landscape at early Lichfield?’

[4] See the post ’St Chad’s shrine chest’.

[5] See the post ‘St Chad’s shrines’.

[6] See the post ‘St Chad’s relics’.

[7] See the post ‘South transept’.

[8] W. Rodwell, ‘Archaeology at the cathedral: A new study of St Chad’s Head Chapel’. Unpub. 48th annual report to the Friends held in Cathedral Library. (1985), 1–5. Rodwell later surmised a wooden stairway was erected in the south choir aisle.

[9] J. C. Cox and W. H. S. J. Hope, ‘Sacrist's Roll of Lichfield Cathedral A.D. 1345’, Derbyshire Archaeological Journal (1882), 4, 107–138.

[10] The date of this Roll is uncertain. The Roll is dated 21 May 1345, but someone has added a second date of 10 June 1346

[11] See the post ‘St Chad’s shrines’.

[12] See the post ‘Lady Chapel and Saint Chapelle’.

[13] D. Lepine, ‘Glorius Confessor: The cult of St Chad at Lichfield Cathedral during the Middle Ages’. SAHS transactions, (2021), 29.

[14] ‘Collections for a history of Staffordshire, Volume 6, part 2’. The William Salt Archaeological Society (London: 1886), 184 note.

[15] H. E. Savage, Bishop John Burghull. (Lichfield: 1924), 19. Held in the Cathedral Library. The Snape map appears to ambiguously show a ferry crossing.

[16] H. E. Savage, The Lichfield Chronicles. (Lichfield 1915), 9. Held in the Cathedral Library.

[17] H. Snowden Ward, ‘Lichfield and its cathedral. A brief history and guide’. (Bradford and London: 1892), 17.

[18] Confiscation occurred over the next ten years.

[19] See the post ‘St Chad’s relics’.

[20] Lepine (2021), 47.

[21] Ibid, 52.

[22] See the post ‘Dissidents in the market square’.

[23] J. G. Lonsdale, ‘Recollections of the work done and in upon Lichfield Cathedral, 1856–1894’. (Lichfield: 1895), 1–38.

[24] See the post ‘Victorian recovery’.

[25] See the online description, www.lichfield.anglican.org/our-faith/pilgrimage/